The Dave Luna Urban Planet Forum Meet-Up (online, too), Sat. April 6th, 10 AM to noon; Copper Branch patio at Downtown Library at 6th Ave. North and Church St.

[dmillsphoto]

I'll decide if I am able to get out in the AM. I've been battling a pretty raucous cold... 

[smeagolsfree]

Everything is a go for the meet today

[markhollin]

Great! See ya soon.  I'm a Midwest boy, so I'm ready and rarin' to go.  : )

[smeagolsfree]

Already 5 of us here.

[smeagolsfree]

Parking is free for customers in the lot behind and to the side of the Perch. Just park and come on in.

[dmillsphoto]

Quite the turnout for get 2017 kicked off. Apparently the lure of free parking and awesome crepes was a factor as well! In all, 16 including myself (taking the photo) and Lil' Geek (somewhere near mom and dad) showed up. Looking forward to another stellar year for urban development in a continued hot city...

 

[RonCamp]

Is the usual meet taking place on Feb 4th?  If so I am hoping to make what would be my first meeting.  Would be great to finally put faces with names for many of you.

[smeagolsfree]

It is.

Looking forward to meeting you. Remember, new location at the Perch at 3rd and James Robertson.

[rookzie]

3 hours ago, RonCamp said:

Is the usual meet taking place on Feb 4th?  If so I am hoping to make what would be my first meeting.  Would be great to finally put faces with names for many of you.

If I can get speculative for a higher-than-high percentage chance that you'd show up, I might just drag-a$$ out for a change, myself.  At my age (and the Smeag's), there aren't a whole lot of hit-n-miss opportunities remaining to finally meet faces of old names.

[RonCamp]

20 hours ago, rookzie said:

If I can get speculative for a higher-than-high percentage chance that you'd show up, I might just drag-a$$ out for a change, myself.  At my age (and the Smeag's), there aren't a whole lot of hit-n-miss opportunities remaining to finally meet faces of old names.

Haha I will give you a definitive yes or no next week - I am hoping to make it!

[smeagolsfree]

Just a reminder that this Saturday is the Forum meet.

10 AM at the Perch at 3rd and James Robertson.

I will be there at 9 as usual.

Free parking in the lots that surround the building.

[RonCamp]

I'll be there.  Look forward to finally meeting many of you.

[smeagolsfree]

very COOL!

[smeagolsfree]

Stupid cheerleading competition at Municipal Auditorium. Nasty girls took all the parking. I am not sure where to recommend parking at this point.

[MidTenn1]

Visiting Granddaughter today. Priorities!!     

[smeagolsfree]

I think the courthouse garage is fairly inexpensive catty corner from the Perch. Did I say I hate Cheerleading competition.

[smeagolsfree]

Hmmmm. Going to have to fire Kevin as he should have done a follow up post about the meet.

 

Had a bakers dozen at the meet with Ron Camp being there for his first meet.

A big shout out to Todd for showing up for a meet. Have not seen him in a long while. Hope you make it more often.

 

Also a shout out to Rookzie. Always great to see him back at a meet.

[UTgrad09]

On 2/8/2017 at 3:15 PM, smeagolsfree said:

Hmmmm. Going to have to fire Kevin as he should have done a follow up post about the meet.

 

Had a bakers dozen at the meet with Ron Camp being there for his first meet.

A big shout out to Todd for showing up for a meet. Have not seen him in a long while. Hope you make it more often.

 

Also a shout out to Rookzie. Always great to see him back at a meet.

No one took a picture either.

[dmillsphoto]

I had to leave so... that's on y'all...

[rookzie]

5 hours ago, UTgrad09 said:

No one took a picture either.

..And that's a blessing for a change, since I looked like the Shaggy D.A., sittin' between Ron and Shelby.

[smeagolsfree]

Man, I am so glad Kevin didn't go naked during his walk of shame.

[markhollin]

Our next Meet-Up will be this Saturday, March 4th at 10 AM at The Perch (300 James Robertson Parkway, at NW corner of James Robertson Parkway and Third Ave. North, 615-647-7255).  Even though the Ohio Valley Conference Basketball Championships are a couple blocks away at Municipal Auditorium this weekend, there are no games scheduled until 2 PM (Women's Championship game) on Saturday, so free parking should not be an issue in the neighborhood at 10 AM.  

https://theperchtn.com/downtown/

I will be posting a list of agenda items for discussion in a couple of days.  

[smeagolsfree]

As always, (well almost always) I will be there at 9am when the doors open to get tables together and eat a great breakfast. Any and all are welcome to get there early to shoot the breeze and enjoy each others company.

I think the OVC tournament is happening, but I think it is a afternoon or evening game as this will be the last day  of the tourney.

[markhollin]

February proved to be another busy month in development around Nashville, so there will be much to discuss in our next Meet-Up this Saturday at 10 AM at the Perch (300 James Robertson Parkway, at NW corner of James Robertson Parkway and Third Ave. North, 615-647-7255). I want to thank Kevin (UTGrad09) for doing such great job moderating the last meeting while I was in Guatemala.  

AGENDA:

• Meet any new folks who are attending and give quick introductions.  
• Get updates from anyone who has traveled to other cities of note recently on what they experienced.
• Eakin seeking $7.9 million in TIF money to offset some of the $9.4 million for the purchase of 2.8 acre lot on Trolley Barns site.  
• World One Hotel (40 stories, 829 rooms, retail mall, 2,500 seat theater) proposed for SW corner of 1st Ave. South and KVB (former Hard Rock site). If done, would be largest hotel in city outside of Opryland Resort.
• Endeavor Tower to be slightly modified from 27 down to 26 stories, from 362 apts. down to 315.  But would trade out two floors of residential space for 65,000 sq. ft. of office space. Whole Foods signs 20 year lease to be on the first floor.
• Asurion seeking 300,000 sq. ft. of office space under one roof to consolidate and grow. Can this happen downtown?
• 2 stories being added to the taller building in Capitol View Phase II. 
• The Joseph Hotel (21 stories, 297 rooms) received $4.5 million in incentives from MDHA in exchange for becoming one of the primary host hotels for MCC events.  Groundbreaking should be this summer.
• 505 Church Street Tower willow have 20 foot extension of glass covering at top to cover hardware. Top-out target is May 18th.
• Water Tower Condos (7 stories, 39 units) at 700 1st Ave. North to break ground in May.
• The Charlesville (4 stories, 10 Air BnB units) to break ground by early March at 712 4th Ave. North.
• Hotel Air BTB (3 stories, 21 units) gets approval for location at 931 Main Street.
• 21c Museum Hotel announces it's opening will be May 14th. The upscale restaurant off of the lobby will be called Gray & Dudley after hardware and metal fabrication company that was once based there.
• The Diner (6 stories) opened last weekend at SE corner of Demonbruen and 3rd Ave. South.
• Ben West Library may be sold by Metro to Hastings Architecture for $4 million. Hope to have building remodeled and open by early 2018.
• Owners of parcel that PSC Metals is on win a dispute over lease rates.  May open the door for rezoning to mixed-use efforts that could be the beginning of the end for the recycling plant being located on those 19.5 acres along the East Bank.
• August Moon indoor "Drive In Theater" experience slated for 7.7 acre parking lot at 14 James Robertson Parkway (NE corner of intersection with I-24).
• 8-story mixed use (42 apartments, office space, an retail) in the works for 10th and Jefferson.
• TownPlace Suites (8 stories, about 200 units) being planned for 1414 Charlotte Ave, about 1 block west of I-65 inner belt.
• Hyatt House Nashville at West End (about 15 stories, 200 rooms) is moving ahead at NW corner of Hayes and 21st Ave. North in Midtown. Demo underway on existing 4 story medical office building.
• Element Hotel (6 stories, 169 rooms, 12,000 sq. ft. of retail) at One C1TY has been delayed, but should probably begin sometime this year.
• Bruin Hills Residential Hall (12 stories, 140', 600 rooms, $80 million) is already underway on east side of Belmont University.  Will be largest building on campus.
• Nashville Predators and Metro partnering on another 2-sheet ice center at Bellevue Place.  Will include a community center. Ford Ice Center in Antioch has been quite successful.  
• Soccer stadium at Fairgrounds must have funding proposal in place by summer according to Mayor Barry.
• Massive (98 acre) former site of Triumph Aerostructures is being pursued by Alliance Partners (owners of Nashville City Center--First Tenn. Bank building) for huge mixed-use development.
• Ovation development in Cool Springs finally getting underway.  Mars Petcare will lease two buildings (4 and 5 stories, totally 224,000 sq.  ft.) to be a primary anchor. Additionally, Phase I will include another 480,000 sq. ft. of retail, a boutique hotel, and 800 apartments at a cost of $500 million. Should be breaking ground very soon.
• Metro Parks will be making $1.2 billion worth of investments over next decade ($667 million in improvements, and $534 million in land purchases).
• Gov. Haslam has been tweaking the Transortation Bill, will allow local governents to raise taxes to assist in funding of the $6 + billion plan.
• Several affordable housing  projects announced: 1) Urban Housing Solutions Phase II on Clarksville Pike (63 apts, 5,600 sq. ft. of retail); 2) Giarratana & Schmerling two 3 story buildings, 50 units at Pearl and 17th Ave. North; 3) Elmington Group, 3 buildings, 150 units, NE corner of 12th Ave. South and Wedgewood; 4) Solo Lofts (110 condo units in 2 buildings of around 6-8 stories each at 1400 block on west side of Dickerson Pike.  Some units as low as $99,000. 5) Renderings of Envision Cayce Kirkpatrick Park town homes--look quite nice.
• Shelly (known as Gracie on the boards)  wants to discuss the idea of creating a blog that might help make the issues discussed within the Urban Planet Nashville Forum and Meet-Ups more accessible to the public.  A way to share knowledge, encourage involvement, and potentially influencing policy and on-the-gorund change.  She has dreams of creating something along the lines of Greater Greater Washington at https://ggwash.org or Broken Sidewalk at http://brokensidewalk.com with a bit of Curbed.com at http://www.curbed.com mixed in.  
  
  Looking forward to seeing everyone.  Even though the Ohio Valley Conference college basketball championships are happening a few blocks away at Municipal Auditorium on Saturday, it shouldn't effect us much parking wise, since the Women's Final starts at 2 PM, and the Men's Final is at 7 PM. There should be plenty of free parking behind The Perch, as well as on neighborhood streets.

[MidTenn1]

Cool, I went to Durham, NC last week. The population increased by at least one (my new Granddaughter!). Not much else to talk about.